Hello: Maurice Hurst Jr.

As anticipated, Westwood (MA) Xavarian Brothers DT Maurice Hurst Jr. has committed to Michigan while visiting campus today, according to a report by 247's Todd Worly ($). Hurst is the son of former New England Patriots cornerback Maurice Hurst and is also a cousin of former St. Louis Rams superstar tailback Marshall Faulk. He becomes Michigan's 19th commit in the class of 2013 and the first at defensive tackle, perhaps the biggest position of need remaining in the class.

GURU RATINGS

Scout

Rivals

ESPN

247 Sports

4*, #23 DT,
#213 Ovr

3*, #30 DT

3*, 77, #32 DT

4*, 90, #19 DT

Hurst's rankings are split between Scout and 247, which see him as a four-star and around the #20 defensive tackle in the country, and Rivals and ESPN, which have him as a three-star and in the area of #30 at his position. All four sites list Hurst at 6'2", with his weight ranging from 275 (Scout/ESPN) to 290 (247). WolverineNation's Chantel Jennings wrote a recent feature on Hurst detailing his rise from a "pudgy" 5'9" freshman to a 6'2" BCS prospect and pegged his current weight at 290 pounds ($).

Hurst is the son of the former New England Patriots cornerback of the same name and you can tell he has athletic genes. He has a nice frame that can still add weight but what really stands out about him is his quickness off the ball and his light feet. Hurst beat most of his opponents with his first step and he was able to win the leverage game most of the time as well. At times he can be too upright and present too much of a target. His footwork is excellent and he has natural balance, and he is very good at responding quickly to the initial punch of offensive linemen. He also showed a good motor.

Impressive athleticism is a common thread throughout Hurst's evaluations—as you'll see in his highlights, he's nimble enough to line up at running back in high school. ESPN's evaluation highlights his explosiveness while pointing out a few areas for improvement mostly pertaining to his technique ($):

You would like to see more consistency but displays a good first-step that can allow him to quickly get penetration. He is at his best when he can fire out and primarily be a penetrator that disrupts schemes. Flashes the ability to be tough when taking on blockers as he can quickly fire out low and gain leverage and with solid strength hold his ground. While he does possess a quick first-step he can at times almost as quickly pop up and play tall and needs to work to consistently keep his pads down. He does display some rigidness and while he can get penetration he displays adequate ability to quickly change direction. He gives good effort and stays after the play showing the ability to take proper angles in pursuit. Displays solid long speed. He will try and wrap-up as a tackler and displays strong hands for drag down types. As a pass rusher he is capable of getting a quick hard charge up-field to get pressure. Will flash the ability to try and work some moves to help work past, but needs to continue to develop in this area to help when he can't just quickly blow past blockers.

As is evident on his tape, Hurst is a very disruptive presence on the interior of the line, a guy who uses his leverage and quickness—a la Mike Martin—to work his way into the backfield with regularity. In November of last year, Scout's Bob Lichtenfels tabbed Hurst as the top prospect in the East region who hadn't yet earned recognition as a top 100 player, comparing him to another collegiate standout ($):

Westwood (Mass.) Xaverian defensive tackle Maurice Hurst Jr., I hate comparing players to kids we've seen in the past, but watching Hurst reminds me of watching Marvin Austin. Kids who are 6-2/275 are not supposed to be able to move the way he does. Not too mention when he isn't wreaking havoc in the other teams backfield he is playing in his own backfield. Not many kids that size can pull that off.

Hurst has an invite to the Army All-American Game, a potential sign that his rankings will be on the rise in the future. His combination of size and athleticism is sure to turn some heads.

Hurst tallied 61 tackles, 13.5 TFL, nine sacks, and four forced fumbles as a junior en route to being named first-team all-state.

FAKE 40 TIME

247 lists Hurst with a 4.88, while his highlight tape credits him with a 4.92. Both seem pretty reasonable for a tackle noted for his athleticism; I'll give those a two FAKEs out of five.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

Pretty epic fat guy touchdown at the :25 mark.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Hurst is reportedly being recruited as a three-tech DT, though he has the size to potentially play the nose down the road if needed—that may depend on who else Michigan adds to the class. If he ends up at three-tech, Hurst should get a redshirt year since Michigan brought in Willie Henry, Matt Godin, and potentially Chris Wormley at the position in the 2012 class. After that redshirt year, he'll be in position for fight for time against those three and a senior Kenny Wilkins; given that he's got a higher recruiting profile than all the '12 recruits save Wormley, he's got a good shot at contributing as a redshirt freshman.

If, say, Michigan brings in MD DT Henry Poggi as a three-tech and slides Hurst over to the nose, he'd be right in the mix to back up Ondre Pipkins from the moment he arrives on campus.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Hurst fills a huge need along the defensive line, but the coaches will likely bring in another defensive tackle, with the top target being Poggi. TX DT Hardreck Walker, who just got bumped up to four stars on Rivals, is another possibility.

The remaining needs are another wide receiver—that spot is currently being held for IL WR Laquon Treadwell—as well as potential depth at strongside DE and in the defensive backfield. For the most part, Michigan can continue to target the best players available. The pace of recruiting should slow considerably with the Wolverines already having filled 19 spots in what should be a 23-24 player class.

Looks like a great player, his run the third play of the video was quite spectacular. Speaking of the video, can you please put a warning on them from now on if they might risk blowing up your speakers? Apparently Fox Business online uses slightly different volume levels than YOUTUBE; damn near gave me a heart attack and I could'nt find the volume switch so my wife started yelling, per usual. And yes young man, I do understand that it may be "Game Time". Excited to have another great player on board.

You've become one of my favorite posters. For some reason, I find everything that you write hilarious, and I think that's true whether you're actually in your 70s or some guy pretending that he's in his 70s.

IBM grabbed one today, too. It's their version of the Terry Tate, office linebacker, thing. It turns out that computer nerds are a little slow but hard to bring down, so Big Blue went DT instead of LB.

...honey, it's Kate Upton, see...she's a big Michigan fan, and well --- wait, no this isn't...it's a blog, it's called MGoBlog.com...no it's not Michigan porn it's a blog. No wait, listen, like it's for Michigan news. I know what the Ann Arbor News is honey. This is where fans can --- see, when Michigan gets a commit, someone always posts. It's not a message babe, it's not like texting or facebook, it's a blog.

Ace...there's a $50 in my pocket with your name on it if you call young master Hurst, Jr. a "fat guy" to his face. Oh, and if you post the carnage of what takes place after that to YouTube, I'll throw in another $20.

But he's only a high school junior. So if he gets any bigger - which seems likely - he'll also be a great fit as a potentially stout *and* disruptive 1-tech. Looking forward to seeing the type of player he'll be once our coaches get to work with him.

First, when Maurice is still "considering" the Spartans...four hours ago ago (lol)...

Has Sean wrote an article on his MSU visit yet?

Not yet. I was referring to Hurst stepping away from Twitter for a minute to really take in the visits. We're both good schools and always seem to get a good to great review from recruits. Kids usually seem to have a good visit unless something goes terribbly wrong so there is not always a need to light up twitter saying things like "awesome visit" and things like that. Or.....maybe he's just really busy visiting back to back schools that could really be a good fit for him. I don't know.

Any of the schools he is looking at would make a great destination for the kid.

And then he commits to us...

Why the hell did this kid even visit if his plans were to commit the second he hit aa? What a fucking joke.

Not gonna lie, we really do not have the best salesmen for recruits. Coaching, they are amazing, but you gotta sell the program better than they are. No reason to keep losing these linemen to Scum every time.

It's going to be mighty annoying watching a UM team full of guys our staff wanted

We better hope our staff is much, much better at develeopment. Because if we agree they are great at evaluation, UM is going to be stacked.

Moran! So tired of so-called Spartans pissing themselves whenever a recruit picks another school. Forty years of the wilderness doesn't get erased in 5 years, get that through your rock hard skull!

Nothing better than a good old fashioned Sparty Meltdown!

You can check out all the glorious bits (here), for as long as the Spartans keep the link anyway. lol GO BLUE

I'm not gonna lie I was hoping this kid would go to virginia. I've heard he isn't very worker, didnt perform well against top quality opponents (I saw just about all of his games, most live)and from what Ive heard he has put about 20lbs of weight in the off season, and its not all good weight. We shouldnt just be celebrating a commit like this because his father was an NFL player. There is no way he will even be a contributer for on defense. Not with what Ive seen of him.

For what it's worth, the play on his highlight reel immediately after the epic touchdown run shows him rushing the passer and getting in the QB's face, then turning around and chasing down the receiver to prevent a bigger gain downfield. One play does not a "high motor" make, but crikey, how many DT's pressure the passer and tackle the receiver on the same play? Not doubting your first-hand observations, but do think a statement like "there is no way he will even be a contributor on defense" before he's even reached his senior year in h.s. is way, way over the top.

The other thing I liked were the schools on his offer list. the ones that popped out at me were Vandy and Duke. If they're recruiting him, I'm not too worried about his academics.

Interesting. We have three D-Line coaches who have made substantial careers out of coaching D-linemen at the highest levels of college football.... but your information has given me pause. I'm now very concerned. /S

Another MSU offer that goes blue. This one has got to hurt since he was in EL yesterday. Sparty fans are getting restless with Hoke's success on the trail, I am hearing alot of we need to beat them now because in three years....